Quakers hope forecast is wrong

9:00am Friday 7th February 2014

By Craig Stoddart

Darlington will stage their biggest game of the season so far tomorrow - if the weather is not as wet as feared.

Yesterday afternoon there were puddles of standing water on the Heritage Park pitch, which could clear by the 3pm kick-off tomorrow against title favourites Curzon Ashton, however there is more rain forecast.

Showers are due tonight and tomorrow morning, while the playing surface will be affected this evening should Bishop Auckland's derby against Newton Aycliffe get the go ahead.

Due to a postponement a fortnight ago, fourth-placed Quakers have had three successive away games, though they are also due to be at Heritage Park a week tomorrow.

That is another tough game, against play-off hopefuls Lancaster City.

Curzon are second, one point off the top with two games in hand, having lost only twice, the most recent defeat being last Saturday.

Quakers' leading scorer Stephen Thompson says the mantra is simple: one game at a time.

"It's getting towards how it was last season," he said. "We're making sure we're taking it one game at a time, which is what we did last year.

"After we beat Spennymoor in February last year we knew it was all down to us as long as we didn't look too far ahead. We had to make sure we beat everybody and that's how it is now.

"Curzon on Saturday is a big game, but last Saturday the biggest game at the time was Kendal because we had to make sure we beat them."

Meanwhile, former Manchester United defender Gary Neville is in talks to invest in Salford City, who are four places below Quakers in the Evo-Stik First Division.

"Discussions are at a preliminary stage," a representative of Neville, 38, confirmed.